Added More To The Snowball

We have had to add a few more things to the debt snowball. The new Total Debt amount is $21,625.22 so that leaves the Total Remaining at $20,637.89. Three debts got added to the snowball, and two of them we knew were coming and we were just waiting on the final tally to come in. See back in May, our daughter got sick and she had to spend 3 days in the hospital and she had to have a procedure done. After the insurance paid their part there was $1,403.00 left to pay. Thank God for insurance!

The third bill is one we forgot about. Felicia was attending a court reporting school here in Dallas that we were paying for on credit (student loans). The last quarter she attended she dropped early because she was in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy and it was hard for her to maneuver with her steno machine. As a result of dropping early, the student loan did not pay for the classes and the school is now charging her for it ($1,508.00).

It looks like if we pay the minimums we can have our debts paid by June 2015. That seems like a long ways to go so Felicia and I have given ourselves 2 years to be debt free. Now, we just have to figure out how to get there.

We are going over our budget and trying to figure out what we can cut back on and how to save more money. We have cut $60.00 from the cell phone, and $20.00 from cable. We know we need to get rid of storage which is $82.00 a month. We haven't use any of that stuff in storage in three years and we probably are not going to use it. We are working on getting rid of the stuff and applying that money to our debt. Also, I get a little overtime every once in awhile and have a chance at a monthly bonus and whenever we get that we can throw at the debt. At times my monthly bonuses can be bigger than my regular monthly pay, but we can't depend on that every month, some months I hit goal and others I don't. Even with all of that, we still need to generate more income so that we can meet our goal.

Felicia is working on selling her sock dolls and jewelry to help with the debt snowball. I am trying to figure out what I can do to generate more income. First thought for me was to get a part time job, either at a bar, a restaurant, or overnight grocery stocker a few nights a week. I am not above doing any of that if need be, but our concern is time with the kids. If I go and do that when will I have time for the kids? I know something is going to have to give and I may have to go out get the part time because being debt free will be better for family in the long run.

I have read about how people have generated second incomes by working at home and I am researching now, to figure out how to do it. One idea I have is to make money blogging. I like blogging about our journey and if I can create a little income doing what I like to do anyway, then I say go for it. I know it is not going to be easy, not everyone who tries it is successful. Felicia and I talked about this and have decided to give it a try for six months. If I do not make money in six months that doesn't mean I am going to stop. It just means I will need to get a second job or work on another way to make extra money.

Blogging has been a way for me to hold myself accountable for the financial decisions that I make as well as help anyone that is embarking on the same journey by showing them what we are going through. It has been great for me to go back and read earlier post to see how far we have come in a short time. We used to be horrible with money, we are not perfect now, but we have come a long way.

We know it is going to take a lot of hard work and sacrifice to get where we want, but we have to keep up our gazelle intensity. We keep reminding ourselves that "If we live like no one else, later we get to live like no one else" This a something Dave Ramsey says everyday on his show.